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Always study phrases, not just individual words! And practice new words with whole sentences!

I know it is very common to learn new words with vocabulary lists, where you have new words on the left and the 1:1 translation on the right. But this is a very painful and boring method. Nobody likes studying vocabulary lists and I guess you don’t like it either – am I right?

And the worst of all, it doesn’t even work effectively!

You ask, “why not?”Well, individual words just by themselves tell no story. It is far more difficult to remember things if they are not embedded in a context. Your brain needs a kind of anchor to save new information. And this works much better if you give the new information a kind of picture or story.

And there is a second reason why it is much better to add example sentences. If you use a vocabulary book, you usually write down only the basic form of the verb for example:

haben = to have

träumen = to dream

But there are many different forms of the verb like: träume, träumst, träumt, träumte, geträumt… So if you also write down example sentences, all the little differences become visible.

For example:

German

English

haben

to have

Ichhabegroße Ohren.

I have big ears.

träumen

to dream

Ichträumejede Nacht.

I dream every night.

If you note an example sentence to every new word, your brain will start to realize step by step that there are some similarities.

In my example: Ich + verb ending“e“. This is just one of many things that your brain will realize (subconsciously) in time. You will learn those little differences automatically, if you follow this rule. After some time you will get a better feeling about what is right and what is wrong.

So, always study phrases, never only individual words! And practice new words with whole sentences!

This way…

– you’ll learn some basic grammar subconsciously over time – you’ll get a better feeling for the correct word order – you’ll learn more than one new word with each sentence

and you’ll remember new words more easily, because the sentences have an actual meaning and you can imagine those situations. You can remember things much better if you build a picture in your mind.

You can imagine yourself with big ears, right?

So next time you encounter a new German word in a book or in a newspaper and you want to learn it, make sure you write not only the word and the translation into your vocabulary book, but the whole sentence.

Well, some TPRS teachers are very strict about that rule. I wouldn’t go that far. I always say: „Don’t focus too much on grammar rules.“

Wow, I can literally see your surprised face!

„Don’t focus on grammar rules?“ Is he serious? But my teacher told me…

Teacher: ☞ „You must study grammar! Grammar is the secret to German! Grammar, grammar and grammar!“

Student: „But why?“ Teacher: „Because I said so!“ Student: „Some teacher you are – you should be a lawyer.“

Grammar can be very helpful and at a certain point, you need to know some rules to reach the next level and to be able to get rid of some typical mistakes. But if you focus too much on grammar instead of more important things, you will never be able to speak German fluently – or even worse you will get frustrated and quit.

A lot of students go crazy because they can’t handle the grammar rules. The more grammar they learn the more they get confused, because to every rule there are also exceptions and in quite a lot of cases German grammar seems to be completely illogical.

If you have been studying German for a while and if you have been focusing on grammar, let me ask you:

Did it work for you? Are you able to speak German fluently right now? If the answer is no, why can’t you speak fluently?

If you have been studying German for years and if you know so many German grammar rules, why are you still not able to speak German fluently? Does it make any sense?

I would like to reassure you: It is not your fault!

Probably your teachers told you to focus on grammar. But by focusing on grammar you automatically neglect other things, that are much more important and absolutely necessary.

Why is it not very helpful to study too many grammar rules?

Because every time you want to speak, you think about grammar. You think about using the right tenses, the correct word order, the suitable prepositions and so on. But when you speak, you don’t have time to think about those things!

Over the years I met a lot of students, who had been studying German for years and were still not able to speak German fluently, even though they were very good in grammar. They were even better in grammar than native speakers. Really, I’m not kidding!!!

Put it to the test

If you don’t believe me, just ask all German native speakers you know or meet or get to know during your life and ask them to explain to you the differences between the German cases. Ask them to explain when you should use: nominative, dative, genitive and accusative. I bet 90% of all German native speakers (who are not German teachers) cannot explain the differences.

And why not? Because they don’t know them. Of course they learned all about it in school, but some didn’t understand it back then and almost everybody doesn’t need it in real life and forgets about it (except teachers maybe).

But if they don’t know those grammar rules, why are they able to speak German fluently?

Well, grammar is obviously not the reason. You can speak German fluently even though you don’t know any grammar rules. Or have you ever seen an eight year old German boy sitting on a bench with a lollipop and his favorite German grammar book in his hand? I don’t think so! But I assume he (let’s call him „Karl“ or „Karlchen“ as his mother calls him) can speak better German than you do!

Yes, I know what you are thinking! German is the boy’s native language, of course he speaks German fluently. He speaks German, he thinks in German and he dreams in German too.

Yes, he does! … And that is exactly the point. The boy doesn’t think about grammar. He just uses grammar automatically. He doesn’t need to think about the cases. It comes out in a correct way just like that. Surely he makes mistakes sometimes, just like every other native speaker. – I am a German native speaker, and I make mistakes too. Nobody is perfect.

Most people, who are studying German but don’t speak German fluently have something in common

When they try to speak German, they…

– think of something to say in their own language – then they try to translate the words into German – then they try to change the word order and think of the suitable grammar rule – and finally they try to say it out loud (very slowly because they pay attention to the correct pronunciation)

This can’t work!!!

Even if you do just one of these steps, you can’t speak fluently. It is also very exhausting and the reason, why so many people don’t like to speak German.

So what is the solution?

In order to speak a foreign language fluently, you must be able to do two things:

1. be able to think in the foreign language 2. feel the grammar (not think about grammar)

You need to feel what is right and what is wrong. If you want to speak German fluently, there is no time to do even one step I mentioned before and especially not thinking about grammar rules. Being able to think in the foreign language and being able to feel the correct grammar are the keys.

I know, it is easier said than done! And that goal can’t be achieved in a couple of days or weeks! But it is possible and I assure you, you can do it! I will help you to reach that goal. I’m very positive that you can also be fluent in German. I know that, because I have helped so many people to get fluent in German and I receive so many nice letters every day to thank me for the great effort and to help people to master the German language.

You need to listen to easy German that you do understand. That’s why I use easy sentences (at first) in my audio lessons and furthermore, I also translate the sentences into English. That makes it easy for you to understand new words and you don’t need to look them up in a dictionary. This will save you time.

As a matter of fact, you have all you need to improve your German very quickly (even as a beginner):

1. The English translation (for understanding)2. The recorded speaker (for pronunciation)3. The written words (for spelling)

The three things above are very important in order to learn a foreign language effectively.

Trust me – you can’t learn a foreign language only from a text book (grammar book).

What you need to do is: listen, listen and listen!

However, just listening to German podcasts or watching movies won’t help. You need to listen to something that you do understand (at least 90% of it!). That’s why I translated all my lessons and stories into English. This makes it easy for you to understand new words and you don’t need to look them up in a dictionary. That will save you time!

If you repeat what you have listened to and actually understand it, your brain will start something really amazing. It will start to save the pronunciation, the word order, the structure and the grammar (up to a certain point) automatically. But only if you understand and repeat what you have listened to.

If you really want to make progress and if you want that the word order, pronunciation and the meaning of the words enter your long term memory, then you need to repeat my lessons many times. Read and listen to the sentences of the vocabulary lesson 10 or even 20 times (advanced students usually need at least 10 times, beginners usually more than 30 times). Have a look at the English translation until you do understand about 80% of the German sentences.

Tip: Try to imagine the situations in your mind. It will help you to remember the words!

Well, learning with audio stories has many advantages. Most of all, it is much more interesting to learn with (audio) stories than to learn vocabulary lists by heart. Secondly, you will be exposed and learn a lot of words, phrases, structures and of course the right pronunciation.

If you have been struggling with German for years and can’t speak it fluently, then you need to ask yourself: „What went wrong“?

With rule No 7 I want you to use from now on a learning technique that is in my opinion the best when it comes to improving your speaking ability.

First Step! (we talked about that)

You need to listen a lot to easy and clearly spoken German in order to build up a good passive vocabulary (= words that you understand). You already know that, because we talked about it before. However, this is not enough! Your understanding will improve, but it won’t help you much if you want to learn to speak German.

Second Step!

The second step is to transform your passive vocabulary into an active vocabulary (= words that you are able to use yourself when you speak). Most students don’t do this important step and that’s why they are not able to speak German fluently. Even after years of learning German with conventional methods they just can’t speak German.

Your goal is to change your passive vocabulary into an active vocabulary!

Your active vocabulary is the key to fluency! If you neglect it, you will never be able to speak German fluently – That is a fact!

So, how can you achieve that?

The answer is easy like everything else that you have learned so far:

Use the „Question and Answer Technique!

Through repetition and this technique your brain will save the German structure step by step and will switch the passive vocabulary into an active vocabulary. This will enable you to use the words and phrases yourself when you speak.

Practicing with this technique is like having a conversion but much more powerful, because you hear also the correct answer right away. A real person wouldn’t correct you every time you make a mistake and that’s why also the mistakes would be saved in your brain. This cannot happen with listen and answer audio stories.

Now you know all seven rules!

If you follow them you will be able to speak German fluently within a few months!

Download all my vocabulary lessons (76), my TPRS audio stories and my fairy tales on your iPod or other device and listen to them every day. Repeat every lesson as long as it takes until you can answer the questions easily. When you have finished all my packages then you will be able to speak German fluently – that is a fact!

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Six Funny Short Story SetsAudio (GER) and Text (GER/ENG) Download Version Only (MP3/PDF)Immediate Access After Payment

Ritter, Drache
und Hexe

Jedes Böhnchen gibt ein Tönchen

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Paul –
Das falsche Klo

Paul – Meine Freundin ist schwanger

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Für die Rente gespart

Maja liebt das Autofahren

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If you want to speak German fluently, there is no time to think about grammar rules. You need to feel what is right and what is wrong. Being able to think in German and being able to feel the correct grammar are the keys. These German stories and lessons will help you to get this feeling.

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Special lesson sets to show you the difference between the present, past and future tense

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Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, do it!

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” ~ Neil Gaiman

If you want to learn to speak German fluently,don’t be afraid of making mistakes. If you haven’t downloaded my learning materials yet, you should do it now, because my special offer will end soon.

If you do this kind of lesson for the first timeplease read the instructions first.

How to learn German with these lessons effectively

1. Read the text in German and English. 2. Read silently and listen to my voice at the same time. 3. Read the German version along with me and/or repeat after me – do this many times until you feel comfortable – try to imitate my voice – it puts your mouth through the exercise of saying the words in decent German pronunciation – it puts the German right into your head – the more you repeat the more familiar it gets

4. If you feel comfortable, go on to the „Question and Answer Part“. 5. Read and listen a few times to my questions and answers. 6. Read along with me and/or repeat after me – do this until you feel comfortable (even if it takes 5 times every day) 7. Try to answer the questions in the pauses (only if you are ready). – Reading the German version along with me or repeating after me – is just fine! – If you do this many times you will be able to answer the questions automatically at a certain point. 8. Repeat this lesson every day until you can aswer the questions easily.

If you are a beginner, just read the English translation and listen to the recorded speaker! You should also try to listen and answer some questions. Don’t worry if you can’t answer right away. Always step by step!

Tip:Try to imagine the situations in your mind. It will help you to remember the words! If you think this lesson is a little too advanced for you, keep this in mind: Even the most difficult lesson is easy after some repetitions!

The Top 100 Language Lovers, hosted by bab.la and Lexiophiles, is probably the largest competition for language enthusiasts! It is aimed at finding the best blogs, Facebook pages and Twitterers with a passion for languages. The competition has gathered over 1,000 nominationsand my Facebook page: Learn-German-Easily and my Twitter account: German should be fun have been nominated!

Please vote for me! It is very easy and takes only a few seconds.

Please click the link below the image, scroll down to: „Learn-German-Easily“ and click the „vote“ button.

Please note: It is not allowed to vote more than once for a Facebook page and more than once for a Twitter account. Your IP address will probably be saved and if you vote for more than one Facebook page or more than one Twitter account the votes won’t count at all.

Please click the link below the image, scroll down to: „German should be fun“ and click the „vote“ button.

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